Why building insurance is worth more than you think

You need to get your hands on building insurance as soon as you own any kind of building – whether it’s the house you live in or the remotely located holiday flat you escape to when the in-laws are threatening to visit.

Basically, building insurance takes care of the permanent, built structures on your property like your house and its outbuildings. Many people are unaware of everything it actually covers though and often wonder why they even have to bother. Unless your property is in cyclone central or the middle of a war zone, the chances of ever needing it are zero to none, right? Wrong.

Cover for every eventuality

Building insurance not only makes sure you don’t have to panic when the structure of your building gets damaged from natural disasters like fires and floods, but is also invaluable when it comes to damage done to fittings, fixtures and improvements. So you’ll also be covered for loss or damage caused by leaking, bursting or overflowing heating systems, geysers and pressurised water pipes. This means, for example, that you’ll have less to worry about when it comes to replacing carpets or ceilings because a pipe in the flat above yours burst.

Building insurance also takes care of things like driveways, walls, garages, fences, patios, swimming pools, swimming pool boreholes, spa pumps, gate motors, tennis courts, underground pipes and cables. And all of these are covered against a range of incidents, including damage from falling trees, power dips and surges, and even aeroplane crashes or items dropped from them – amongst many others.

It’s pretty clear that building insurance isn’t really something you want to be without. Moreover, by this time, you might have realised that your childhood dreams of controlling the world or its weather are not realistic and that you, in fact, have no control over theft or natural forces like lightning striking and rivers overflowing from endless rain. These things do happen, however, and have left many people stranded with no idea of how they’ll be able to pay for repairs to their homes.

You also need to keep in mind that even the rarest of disasters do happen and you don’t want to be left in the position where you’re paying off a bond on a house that no longer exists. Not to mention the conversation you will have to have with your better half because you didn’t get those building insurance quotes when they asked you to ages ago.